Social networking: Good or bad?

During a lunchbreak on the course I am currently facilitating, we got around to talking about social networking. At the table was a deputy headmaster, a CEO, some engineers and two consultants. We all agreed that the younger generation have adopted the new fad very well and the deputy head was quick to add that in his opinion the youngsters at his school, one of the top schools around, were anything but spoilt in terms of relationships and friendships.

That, notwithstanding, kids are becoming increasingly two-dimensional and relationally challenged. They may well find a steep challenge in the workplace - or else there may be other consequences for this generation, including a general state of denial.

One woman made a comment that I am still chewing on. What surprised me was that such wisdom would come from someone who feels she lacks vital skills, like numeracy or business sense. She said that now kids can pose nude on the internet and let it all hang out in terms of language and content, because the new media are devoid of any sense of consequence. There is no ethical template or moral code to guide them - anything goes.

Wow that hit me - the world was founded on principles of accountability and responsibility. John Haggee rightfully observed that when Adam and Eve defied all warnings and ate of the tree, God humbled them and held them accountable - immediately. The consequence was significant and immediate. Even now the world as we know it, has embedded consequences: Mess with your body and it will fail you. Mess around with your marriage and it will destroy you. Cheat at work or abuse the boss and you will get fired. Break the traffic rules and you will pay. Tamper with the environment and it will hit back with vengeance.

Yet kids, for all the education thrown at them, are at risk of having knowledge without responsibility and freedom without consequence. It is a profoundly scary idea when you consider the sheer power they will inherit from this generation. How did it all come to this? God help us if we don't guide them to a better worldview. I am ready to kick TV out of our home, such is my indignation. What do you have to say? Is it that bad? Am I being alarmist? Will we survive?  

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net